What's In A Name?
by SkyGem
Summary: Kira finally meets his match when he decides to try and take on the Italian mafia. At first, everything seems to go as planned, with the lesser members dying as expected, but when he moves on to...full summary inside. No pairings. Possibly a multi-chap.


Summary: Kira finally meets his match when he decides to try and take on the Italian mafia. At first, everything seems to go as planned, with the lesser members dying as expected, but when he moves on to bigger fish, he finds that the Death Note isn't as foolproof as he once thought. What exactly is the Vongola's secret? How are they escaping the effects of the Death Note? No yaoi. [Probably] No pairings.

SkyGem: I'd actually been thinking about this for a while now, but I only recently was able to work out the little kinks in this plan. This fic will probably remain as a one-shot, or if I decide to continue it, it'll probably be so long from now that people probably won't remember it. I hope you enjoy it anyways. And as usual, please do R&R, ne?

Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and neither do I own Death Note.

* * *

The shinigami Ryuk's creepy laughter filled the room as he watched Light practically pulling his hair out in frustration.

"Why the hell isn't he dying?" he cried out. It had been three days since the young man had written down the name of the most powerful man in the Italian mafia, and still, there were no reports of him having died of a heart attack, which there would have been, considering how powerful the man was.

So that only left one plausible explanation and even that was in no way possible.

This scrawny-looking man, who was probably even younger than Light himself, had somehow found a way to escape the effects of the Death Note.

Taking a moment out of his crazy-tantrum, Light turned to the shinigami that was currently sitting on his bed, laughing his ass off, and asked, "He's using a fake name?"

This only caused the shinigami to laugh even harder, making Light narrow his eyes.

"Ryuk…" said the man in a warning tone.

The shinigami finally stopped laughing and looked at Light, his expression serious for once, the ever-present grin on his face was nowhere to be seen.

"You better quit while you're ahead, Light. This guy and most of his stronger acquaintances are completely untouchable, even for shinigami."

"And why's that?" asked Light, his tone holding just a hint of curiosity.

Ryuk's voice was unnaturally grim as he voiced a fact that sent chills up Light's spine and confused him to no end.

"Because he doesn't have a name."

* * *

L Lawliet sat in his customary sitting position, staring with barely concealed interest at the computer screen in front of him, listening to every word of the video message that had been sent to him from an unknown source only minutes ago. The very fact that he hadn't been able to trace it back to its source was noteworthy in itself, but it was nothing to the message itself.

On the screen was a young man, maybe two or three years younger than him, with fluffy brown hair that stuck out every which way and soft brown eyes that bespoke great kindness. Despite his misleading appearance, though, this man went by the name of Sawada Tsunayoshi, the leader of the largest and most powerful crime syndicate in the entire world. This was a man who, by all accounts, should be **dead**, if the recent string of deaths in the mafia were anything to go by.

"_...beneficial on both sides. We get the opportunity to avenge our fallen, and you learn the secret of escaping death at the hands of Kira."_

This really caught L's attention, his expression turning thoughtful.

So he knew how to negate Kira's powers?

The man on the screen smiled a mysterious, knowing smile, as if he knew exactly what was going through L's mind.

"_Please do think about our offer, E-ru-san,"_ said the man, pronouncing every syllable of his alias separately. And with one last bow, the screen went black, leaving the detective alone with his thoughts.

After only a moment of contemplation, the black-haired male reached into his pocket and brought out a cell phone, holding it between his thumb and forefinger as if it were contaminated.

After speed-dialing his faithful servant, he waited for a moment as the man picked up the phone, and said, "Watari, please arrange a meeting as soon as possible with Sawada Tsunayoshi."

* * *

"What do you mean, he doesn't have a name?" demanded Light, "His name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, as anyone with even a bit of knowledge about the mafia would be able to tell you!"

Ryuk's serious mood had disappeared again, and he let out another laugh, saying something that caught Light completely off-guard.

"What exactly is a name?"

Irritated at the seeming change of topic, Light opened his mouth to retort, but as he thought about it, he found he really couldn't answer the question.

Ryuk just grinned maniacally, seeing that his charge had figured it out, and his eerie chuckle filled the room.

* * *

L sat once again in front of his monitor, but this time with the rest of the task force there as well. They were all (sans L) staring at the screen in complete disbelief.

What had the so shocked, you ask?

Well, the screen showed a cozy little office with dark, hardwood floors and creamy beige walls that were almost invisible beneath all the pictures that hung around the room. There was a soft brown rug taking up most of the floor, and three sofas huddled around a table in the centre of the room.

But it wasn't the office that shocked these men. No, it was the people in the office.

The man known as Sawada Tsunayoshi, the most powerful man in the whole Italian mafia, sat on the ground, happily chatting with two very enthusiastic kids. The rest of his upper echelon, his seven guardians, were resting comfortably in several places around the room.

After staring at the family scene before them, the task force turned to stare at L, who merely shrugged, and decided that this would be the perfect time to start.

Speaking into his special microphone which would automatically scramble his voice for him, he said, "Everything is prepared on this side, Sawada-san."

The brunet looked up from his conversation with one young boy with incredibly curly hair, and smiled, saying, "Wonderful! I hope you won't mind if I stay in my current seat, it's quite comfortable. Oh, and if anyone other than L-san wishes to speak, then please state your name first so we can avoid confusion, ne?"

Before L could say a word, Yagami took it upon himself to say, "Sawada-san, this is Yagami Soichiro. I apologize, but the conversation we are about to have is not suitable for children."

The brunette on the screen looked down at the two children for a second, frowned, then looked back up, saying, "I don't mean to sound rude, Soichiro-san, since you are many years my senior, but please do refrain from jumping to conclusions. I would not have these two in here if I didn't think they could handle it. The older child is none other than the ranking prince, Fuuta de la Stella, and the younger one is Lambo Bovino, my lightning guardian. They both have every right to be here for this conversation."

L took a second to glare at Yagami for his actions before turning back to the screen and saying, "I apologize for his behaviour, Sawada-san. I will make sure it doesn't happen again. Now, would you please be so kind as to tell us the information you promised last time?"

The frown disappeared from the younger man's face almost instantaneously, and he said, "Ah, you mean about escaping Kira?"

There was silence for a moment before everyone in the Task Force let out a collective exclamation of, "EH?"

Apparently, L hadn't told any of them what this meeting would be about.

Sawada-san and his guardians must have heard, for smiles of amusement appeared on most of their faces.

As the members of the task force watched the screen intently, the brunet leaned his back against the coffee table behind him, his rain and storm guardians watching him carefully for a few seconds before going back to what they had been doing, supposedly not paying attention to what was going on.

"Well," started the young Vongola Juudaime, "There is a story passed down, generation to generation, in our _Family_. A strange story it is, too, about the time our Shoudaime met…" here he paused for dramatic effect, "…a shinigami!"

The task force members looked incredulous at this, Matsuda even looked enraged, but L was listening intently, his intuition telling him that the man was being serious, that he knew what he was talking about."

"Our Shoudaime, my great-great-great grandfather Giotto was able to convince the shinigami not to kill him, and in the process, the two became…friends, for lack of a better word. And do you know how a shinigami kills?"

When there was no answer, the brunet smirked.

"They write a person's name in their Death Note."

There was complete silence on L's side as he and the others all came to the realization that Sawada Tsunayoshi was telling them that Kira was using something called a _Death Note._

Before any of them could ask any questions, Sawada continued.

"So when Giotto found out about this, he began to wonder; what exactly is a name? What decides what your name is? Is it a legal document, tucked away somewhere in a hospital or a government office? Somehow, I don't think shinigamis really care about our legal system. And then there's also all those situations with people changing their names and such. So it can't be that. So then he thought that maybe your name is what your parents and friends call you? But then there's also nicknames or aliases to think about as well, isn't there? So that theory was completely trashed. For a long while, Giotto wondered, and still, he didn't find out what a name was."

By now, it was deathly quiet on the other side of the screen, as L and the others took in what this man was saying, their minds working fast.

L's mind was racing with what the man had said; he was so close to figuring it out, it was on the tip of his tongue.

After a moment's pause, Sawada smiled and began speaking again.

"It wasn't until almost a decade afterwards that Giotto finally came to the right conclusion, and it was an absurdly simple one; a name is what you identify yourself by."

The silence after he spoke was almost deafening this time, and L's eyes widened as he mentally berated himself for not figuring it out; it really was absurdly simple.

"I mean, think about it. When someone asks who you are, you answer by telling them your name. When someone calls your name, you turn around. With these situations constantly happening, in your mind, your name becomes synonymous with "me" or "I"."

L, who by now was already piecing together where this man was getting to, was marveling at the sheer cleverness of it.

"Well, when Giotto realized this, he also found a loophole. He wanted his family to always be safe from shinigami, for them to live their full lifespan without having it snatched away. So he passed on a technique, one that most of us have been trained in since we were little. It's difficult, extremely so, but very effective. Do you want to know what it is?"

There was a moment of silence as all any of them could do was sit, gaping at the man, in silence.

Finally, almost a minute later, when it was obvious that he wouldn't be getting an answer, Sawada smiled and explained.

"We were taught to distance ourselves from our names. We were taught to think of our names not as something that defines who we are, but merely as a title, a convenience for others when they want to call us. To me, the name Sawada Tsunayoshi means little more than the title Vongola Juudaime; they're both on the same level."

By now, everyone on the task force was gaping openly, and L gave one approving nod. Shooting a glance at his flabbergasted colleagues, he then turned back to the screen, his eyes meeting those of the smug Mafioso, even if the other man didn't know it.

Without even a hesitation, he opened his mouth and told the man, "I look forward to working with you on this case, Sawada Tsunayoshi-san."

* * *

SkyGem: So, what did you think?...Did it make any sense? *Is apprehensive.* I mean, it made enough sense in my mind, but I'm not sure if I was able to explain it properly…so please do leave a review and tell me what you thought ne? Tell me if you thought the idea was too farfetched or not. And I'm also marking this as complete for now, but who knows, I might continue it. It seems a promising plot. Well, that's it for now! Ciao!


End file.
